What is Black American Culture? (inspired by The Salon)

[Field Marshall Bradley]

We really don't have one... I thought yall knew that already.....

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Afrocentrism (also Afrocentricity)

Afrocentrism (also Afrocentricity) is a cultural ideology, worldview mostly limited to the United States and is dedicated to the history of Black people. It is a response to global (Eurocentric/Orientalist) attitudes about African people and their historical contributions and revisits their history with an African cultural and ideological focus. Afrocentricity deals primarily with self-determination and African agency and is a Pan-African ideology in culture, philosophy, and history.[1][2]


Afrocentrism can be seen as an African-American inspired ideology that manifests an affirmation of themselves in a Eurocentric-dominated society, commonly by conceptualizing a glorified heritage in terms of distinctly African, foreign origins (where foreign is anything not indigenous to the African continent). It often denies or minimizes European cultural influences while accenting historical African civilizations that independently accomplished a significant level of cultural and technological development. In general, Afrocentrism is usually manifested in a focus on African-American culture and the history of Africa, and involves an African Diaspora version of an African-centered view of history and culture to portray the achievements and development of Africans who have been marginalized.

Afrocentrism has a long and often misunderstood history. Though usually associated with the intellectual lineage that runs from Cheikh Anta Diop (1923–1986) to Molefi Asante (1942–), the ideology actually has a pedigree that dates back to some of the most distinguished African-American intellectuals of the nineteenth century, including David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Martin Delany, Alexander Crummell, and Edward Wilmot Blyden. The actual term Afrocentric apparently was coined by W. E. B. Du Bois only in the early 1960s. Du Bois wrote that his proposed Encyclopedia Africana would be "unashamedly Afro-centric" in focus. Asante resurrected the term in his 1980 work, Afrocentricity, injecting new energy into an old approach to the study of Africans and their descendants. By the late 1980s, the term Afrocentric was used to describe a range of thinkers, from mainstream historians like Sterling Stuckey to more controversial scholars like Leonard Jeffries.

While the term Afrocentric has been applied to both credible and dubious attempts at scholarly analysis, at its broadest, it is simply an attempt to place Africa, instead of Europe, at the center of scholarly analysis of peoples of African descent. In his 1987 book, The Afrocentric Idea, Molefi Asante defines Afrocentricity as "the placing of African ideals at the center of any analysis that involves African culture and behavior" (p. 6). It should be emphasized that this perspective is not an explicit argument for African superiority in culture and history, although some scholars have used it to that end. Rather, it is a conceptual tool for seeing the history of African-descended peoples through their own lens, and not through the lens of Europe or the West. As a mode of analysis, Afrocentrism has remained remarkably durable over the past two hundred years; however, scholars have often reached radically different conclusions in their utilization of this analytical tool.

Black Nationalism, Afrocentrism, and the Academy
A crucial prerequisite to an Afrocentric perspective is the recognition of Africa as a common "homeland" to all peoples of African descent. The earliest expressions of this sentiment emerged out of late eighteenth-century African-American communities, where figures like Prince Hall and Paul Cuffe initiated movements to return to Africa and create settlements there. In 1787 Hall, the most prominent free black in Boston, petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts to aid African Americans "to return to Africa, our native country." For black people born in America, as well as for various African societies, the notion of a singular African homeland represented the reality of shared historical trajectories in the diaspora. By defining themselves as "Africans," rather than as "Americans," "Yorubas," or "Kongos," these early Afrocentrists played a crucial role in conceptualizing a shared history of African-descended peoples, regardless of natal background.

Because of the connections between emigration and racist slave-holding interests, many African Americans rejected emigration schemes of the early nineteenth century; however, new initiatives in the 1850s once again drew attention to the shared history of peoples of African descent. In 1858 Henry Highland Garnet called for the construction of "a great center for Negro nationality" in Africa or the Americas. One year later, in 1859, Martin Delany traveled to West Africa in the hopes of realizing his vision of "Africa for the African race and black men to rule them." Similar expressions could be found in the ideas of Henry McNeal Turner, and much later, Marcus Garvey. These "back-to-Africa" movements faded after the 1920s, but by this time the idea of Africa as the common homeland of African-descended peoples was well established.

Concurrent with emerging ideas about a singular "Africa" were new interpretations of African history and culture. Challenging racist characterizations of Africa as a dark continent lacking science and history, a number of nineteenth-century black intellectuals pointed to the achievements of Egypt and Ethiopia as evidence of Africa's rich and glorious past. In Appeal (1829), David Walker highlighted "the arts and sciences—wise legislators—the pyramids and other magnificent buildings … by the sons of Africa … among whom learning originated, and was carried thence into Greece." Similar emphasis on Egypt, and especially the ancient Christian tradition of Ethiopia, can be found in the works of Frederick Douglass, James C. Pennington, and Henry Highland Garnet.

Afrocentrism Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Afrocentrism

 

[IllmaticDelta]

When you combine religion with Black Nationalism/Afrocentrism you get stuff like..... (same way Rastafarianism was born in Jamaica)

William Saunders Crowdy (August 11, 1847 – August 4, 1908) was an American soldier, preacher, entrepreneur, theologian, and pastor. As one of the earliest Hebrew Israelites in the United States, he established the Church of God and Saints of Christ in 1896.

Black Judaism' has roots in Kansas

But did you know that "Black Judaism," as it's come to be known, has its roots right here in Kansas over a century ago? Or that it influenced such later religious developments as Rastafarianism and even the Nation of Islam?

It's true, according to numerous sources.

They point to the arrival of former slave and railroad cook William Saunders Crowdy in Lawrence, Kan., in 1896 and his establishment there of the Church of God and Saints of Christ as perhaps the watershed event in the movement that identifies African-Americans with the biblical Hebrews.

Within a couple of years, Crowdy had established satellite tabernacles all across Kansas, from Atchison to Topeka to Winfield. The COGASOC eventually withered away here, but it still exists. It has its headquarters in Virginia and is headed by one of Crowdy's descendants.

Saints of Christ?
Today, tens of thousands of people consider themselves Black Jews, even if the mainstream Jewish community doesn't completely accept them. At this point, the contentious issues are more theological than racial, and Rabbi Funnye has made it his business to bridge those gaps, according to an article in the July-August edition of Moment magazine titled "Post-Racial Rabbis."

Writer Jeremy Gillick says that Funnye is succeeding, to the extent that he has "been almost universally accepted as a rabbi by liberal Jewish movements, as well as by many more traditional groups."

That's apparently so in large part because the segment of Black Judaism to which Rabbi Funnye adheres has moved much closer to mainstream Judaism than others, including the COGASOC

It's doubtful that the rabbis of his day would have recognized William Crowdy as a peer, much less the prophet that COGASOC considers him today. There is that "Christ" business, although the COGASOC Web site has an explanation for that in its FAQ section:

"We interpret this name to mean that we are a religious organization which is directed by God, 'Church of God,' and we are followers of the anointed of God, 'Saints of Christ.' Our congregation should not be mistaken for Messianic Jews or Jews for Jesus, because we do not believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. ... We believe in the religion of Jesus and not the religion about Jesus."

Nonetheless, it continues, "We believe that Jesus was a prophet, and we accept all biblical prophets of God who taught the laws of God."

It is this sort of duality that led writers including James E. Landing in "Black Judaism," (Carolina Academic Press, 2002) and Yvonne Chireau in "Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism," (Oxford University Press, 2000) to call COGASOC an admixture of Jewish and Christian theological concepts.

Still, congregants at Temple Beth El, the COGASAC headquarters in Belleville, Va., will celebrate Rosh Hashanah tonight, just as at every other synagogue and temple in the world. In fact, they observe most of the major holidays with the exception of Chanukah. The Festival of Lights, of course, is post-biblical, and COGSAC consider themselves biblical Jews.

And that gets to the heart of the split between the Black Jewish community and the normative one: Black Jews have their own interpretations of the Bible, and don't necessarily follow the rabbinic tradition.

Crowdy in Kansas
And while in the 19th century many black Christians found the biblical Israelites an inspiring allegory for their own enslavement, it was Crowdy who first popularized the literal identification of black Americans with Israelites, or Jews.

Born a slave in 1847 in Maryland, Crowdy served in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, he moved to Guthrie, Okla., and later to Kansas City, Mo., where he established a family and worked on the Santa Fe Railroad as a cook.

According to a history of COGASOC written by his daughter, it was William Crowdy's powerful singing voice that first attracted people to him. He was said to have arrived in Lawrence in 1896 and begun to sing and preach on the street. That led to a public meeting at the Douglas County Courthouse, attended by both whites and blacks, and to the incorporation of the COGASOC.

According to records reproduced by former University of Kansas student Elly Wynia in her book, "The Church of God and Saints of Christ: The Rise of Black Jews." (Routledge, 1994) COGASOC's "First General Annual Assembly Meeting" occurred in Lawrence on Oct. 10, 1899

During Crowdy's time in Lawrence, COGASOC records showed a "tabernacle" at 1239 New Jersey St., where a private home stands today. Henry Street, the location of the other Lawrence tabernacle, no longer exists today. Likewise, the address given for the Topeka tabernacle, 910 S.E. 12th St., is today merely the side yard of a rundown house in a historically black neighborhood.

If William Crowdy, the father of "Black Judaism," is still regarded a prophet in some circles, he's almost unknown in his old Kansas stomping grounds.


What are Black Jews?
Yvonne Chireau writes in "Black Zion" that "One of the first communities to which the designation 'black Jews' was applied was the Church of God and Saints of Christ (also known as the Temple Beth-el congregations), established in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1896 by William Saunders Crowdy. Crowdy, a former Baptist preacher, called his congregations 'tabernacles' and embedded select Jewish beliefs and practices within a format that was similar to that of a Christian church. The group's appropriation of Judaism constituted what for some writers have characterized as a Hebraic-Christian or Judeo-Christian formation, in which aspects of Old Testament tradition were integrated with Christian elements.... The Church of God adopted Jewish customs that may have been based on a literal interpretation of Old Testament rites.

"The Church of God, for instance, maintained the office of the rabbinate, celebrated Passover, and observed a Saturday Sabbath while incorporating new Testament principles, emphasizing the works of Jesus Christ and his teachings, and practicing such rituals as Baptism. This pattern of selecting components of Judaism and preserving theological and doctrinal perspectives from Christianity was typical of a number of groups in the early establishment of black Jewish communities in the United States."

'Black Judaism' has roots in Kansas

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Rastafari related

No...Marcus GARVEY did not deify or prophesy about Selassie's coming.

Liberty Hall was a location Marcus Garvey's UNIA own and operated where preachers, poets, artist and essayists etc where welcome and given a soap box to speak on various issue relevant to the black communities.
One preacher and author by the name of James Morris Webb actually made the prophecy about a "Negro Universal King Coming to Rule the World" at or in one of UNIA Liberty Halls. Ten yrs later Ras now Negus Tafari was Crowned King of Ethiopia.

http://paramountshome.org/articles/Spotlight/rev webb2.pdf

Interesting character

 

[Rhapscallion Démone]

@IllmaticDelta is teaching everybody what African American Culture is at a Master Class Level.....and is generous enough to not charge a damn thing. You best believe if I had put in HALF the work this brother has put in for the ignorant people who believe we are lacking in culture, I would've been charging tuition and application fees.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Noble Drew Ali (who was born Timothy Drew, in North Carolina) (1886-1929) was the founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America. He first founded the Temple in Newark, N.J., in 1923 and soon there were branches in Pittsburgh, Detroit, and other major industrial cities of the northeast, especially in neighborhoods that had attracted mass black migration from the South.



Moorish Science Temple of America

The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American national and religious organization founded by Noble Drew Ali, born Timothy Drew. He based it on the belief that African Americans were descended from the Moors of North West Africa and thus were Moorish by nationality and Islamic by faith. Ali put together elements of major traditions to develop a message of personal transformation through historical education, racial pride and spiritual upliftment. It also intended to provide African Americans with a sense of identity in the world and promote civic involvement. One primary tenet of the Moorish Science Temple is the belief that African-Americans are of Moorish ancestry, specifically from "Moroccan Empire" which, according to Ali, included other countries that surround Morocco today. To join the movement, individuals had to proclaim their "Moorish nationality", were giving "nationality cards" and in religious texts, adherents refer to themselves racially as "Asiatics".[1] Adherents of this movement are known as Moorish-American Moslems and are called "Moorish Scientists" in some circles.

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[IllmaticDelta]

Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam (Arabic: أمة الإسلام‎, abbreviated as NOI) is an Islamic religious movement founded in Detroit, United States, by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad on July 4, 1930.[2] Its stated goals are to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African Americans in the United States and all of humanity.[3] Critics have labeled the organization as being black supremacist[4] and antisemitic,[5][6][7] and NOI is tracked as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[8]

Its official newspaper is The Final Call. The Nation of Islam does not publish its membership numbers; in 2007, the core membership was estimated between 20,000 and 50,000.[1]

After Fard disappeared in June 1934, the Nation of Islam was led by Elijah Muhammad, who established places of worship (called Temples or Mosques), a school named Muhammad University of Islam, businesses, farms, and real estate holdings in the United States and abroad

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Five-Percent Nation (Nation of Gods and Earths, or the Five Percenters)

The Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as NGE or NOGE, the Nation of Gods and Earths, or the Five Percenters is an American organization founded in 1964 in the Harlem section of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, by a former member of the Nation of Islam named Clarence 13X (born Clarence Edward Smith and later known as "Allah the Father"). Clarence 13X, a former student of Malcolm X, left the Nation of Islam after a dispute with Elijah Muhammed over the fact that Elijah taught that the white man was the devil,yet did not teach that the black man was God.[1] Specifically, Clarence 13X denied that the Nation's biracial founder W. Fard Muhammad was Allah and instead taught that the black man was himself God personified.[1] Members of the group call themselves Allah's Five Percenters, which reflects the concept that ten percent of the people in the world know the truth of existence, and those elites and agents opt to keep eighty-five percent of the world in ignorance and under their controlling thumb; the remaining five percent are those who know the truth and are determined to enlighten the rest.[2]

Initially, the Nation of Gods and Earths, as it is known today, was viewed as little more than an offshoot of the Nation of Islam (NOI). While the Nation of Gods and Earths has been characterized as an organization, an institution, a religion, or even a gang (by the F.B.I. under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover who launched many Counter-intelligence programs against black organizations), representatives of the Nation teach that Islam is a natural or mathematical way of living, not a religion. The New York City areas of Harlem ("Mecca") and Brooklyn ("Medina") were named after notable Islamic cities by members of the organization.[3][4] Other areas include Detroit ("D-Mecca"), New Jersey ("New Jerusalem"), Chicago ("C-Medina"), Queens ("the Desert"), Connecticut ("New Heaven"), St. Louis ("Saudi"), Seattle ("Morocco"), and Dallas ("the Sudan").[5]

The Nation of Gods and Earths teaches that black people are the original people of the planet Earth, and therefore they are the fathers ("Gods") and mothers ("Earths") of civilization.[1] The Nation teaches that Supreme Mathematics and Supreme Alphabet, a set of principles created by Clarence 13X, is the key to understanding humankind's relationship to the universe. The Nation does not believe in a mystery God but instead teaches that the Asiatic Blackman (sic) is God and his proper name is Allah, the Arabic word for God.[1]


Origin of Five-Percent title

The term Five Percent comes from NOI doctrine that sees the world's population divided into three groups: 85% of the people are blind to the knowledge of themselves and God, while 10% of the people know the truth, but teach a lie for their personal gain; seen as part of this 10% are religious leaders that teach that God is an incorporeal being (hence the term mystery God). The 10% can also include the governments of the world that deceive and mislead the majority of the world through most of the available media outlets. The remaining 5% are the Poor Righteous Teachers—those who do not subscribe to the teachings of the 10%, as they know and teach that God is the Asiatic Blackman.


Supreme Mathematics
The Supreme Mathematics is a system of understanding numerals alongside concepts and qualitative representations that are used along with the Supreme Alphabet.[11][16] The Supreme Mathematics is thought to be the highest system of numerology in the NGE, used to give qualitative value to numbers in addition to quantity. The numerals are as follows:

1. Knowledge
2. Wisdom
3. Understanding
4. Culture Freedom
5. Power Refinement
6. Equality
7. God
8. Build Destroy
9. Born

0. Cipher

Supreme Alphabet
Main article: Supreme Alphabet
The Supreme Alphabet is a system of interpreting text and finding deeper meaning from the NOI Lessons by assigning actual meanings to the letters of the Latin script. For example, the first letter, A, stands for Allah; the 12th letter, L, stands for Love, Hell, or Right; and the 13th letter, M, stands for Master. This Supreme Alphabet was developed with assistance from Justice Cee by Father Clarence 13X. The method by which letters were associated with certain values is unknown.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

A large amount of East Coast/HipHop slang is from the 5%s

The GODS Of Hip-Hop: A Reflection On The Five Percenter Influence On Rap Music & Culture

ip-Hop pioneer and host of the original Yo! MTV Raps, Fab Five Freddy expressed similar sentiments.

“The Five Percenter theology, thought process and of course, most importantly, the unique use of language had an indelible impact on Hip-Hop music.”

Fab 5 Freddy

The Five Percent popularized use of the expressions “peace,” “word is bond” and even “keep it real.” Amongst the Gods and Earths, using the term “sun,” to describe your “mans and them” wasn’t because you felt they were like your kids, it was because Black Men were symbolic of the that great star at the center of our solar system, which symbolized the Black Family. Simmons presented a simplified explanation in his Life and Def:

“A Five Percenter will say some fly Shyte like, ‘I’ve got seven moons, three suns and two earths.’ It sounds mystical, but he’s really talking about all his women, with his two earths being his closest girls,” wrote Simmons. All of these things were incorporated into the Hip-Hop lexicon.

“I call my brother, Sun because he shine like one…” Method Man “Wu-Gambinos”

Other prime examples of foundational incorporations include “the cipher” and the “B-Boy stance.” Whereas in the Hip-Hop, the cipher is known as a circle of MCs spitting their lyrics, or the space wherein B-Boys boogied, it was adopted from “building in the cipher,” the practice of Gods and Earths forming a circle around a speaker “dropping science,” (another term adopted by Hip Hop) elaborating on the teachings of Supreme Mathematics and the 120 Lessons. In addition, sacred circles are long-standing traditions within indigenous cultures throughout the planet.

The B-Boy stance also is derived from Five Percenter posturing. “The B-Boy stance is originated as a Five Percenter thing,” says Fab Five Freddy. “I can remember the way the Gods would stand. The Gods would stand and have one foot there and you’d fold your arms and it was like… Whoa!” Historical images of the Gods “squared up” or “standing on the square” as it is called can be found throughout the photographic work of Jamel Shabazz.

- See more at: The GODS Of Hip-Hop: A Reflection On The Five Percenter Influence On Rap Music & Culture

 

[IllmaticDelta]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

@IllmaticDelta is teaching everybody what African American Culture is at a Master Class Level.....and is generous enough to not charge a damn thing. You best believe if I had put in HALF the work this brother has put in for the ignorant people who believe we are lacking in culture, I would've been charging tuition and application fees.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Black Power

Black Power
is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies aimed at achieving self-determination for people of African/Black descent.[1] It is used by African Americans in the United States.[2] It was prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, emphasizing racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests[3] and advance black values.

"Black Power" expresses a range of political goals, from defense against racial oppression, to the establishment of social institutions and a self-sufficient economy. The earliest known usage of the term is found in a 1954 book by Richard Wright entitled Black Power.[4] Although he did not "coin" the phrase, New York politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. used the term on May 29, 1966 during a baccalaureate address at Howard University: "To demand these God-given rights is to seek black power."[4]

A range of ideologies


Black Power adherents believed in Black autonomy, with a variety of tendencies such as black nationalism, and black separatism. Such positions caused friction with leaders of the mainstream Civil Rights Movement, and thus the two movements have sometimes been viewed as inherently antagonistic. However, many groups and individuals - including Rosa Parks,[8] Robert F. Williams, Maya Angelou, Gloria Richardson, and Fay Bellamy Powell - participated in both civil rights and black power activism. A growing number of scholars conceive of the civil rights and black power movements as one interconnected Black Freedom Movement.[9][10][11]

Not all Black Power advocates were in favor of black separatism. While Stokely Carmichael and SNCC were in favor of separatism for a time in the late 1960s, organizations such as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense were not. Though the Panthers considered themselves to be at war with the prevailing white supremacist power structure, they were not at war with all whites, but rather those (mostly white) individuals empowered by the injustices of the structure and responsible for its reproduction.

Bobby Seale, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was outspoken about this. His stand was that the oppression of black people was more of a result of economic exploitation than anything innately racist. In his book Seize the Time, he states that "In our view it is a class struggle between the massive proletarian working class and the small, minority ruling class. Working-class people of all colors must unite against the exploitative, oppressive ruling class. So let me emphasize again—we believe our fight is a class struggle and not a race struggle."[12]

Internationalist offshoots of black power include African Internationalism, pan-Africanism, black nationalism, and black supremacy.

Impact


Although the concept remained imprecise and contested and the people who used the slogan ranged from business people who used it to push black capitalism to revolutionaries who sought an end to capitalism, the idea of Black Power exerted a significant influence. It helped organize scores of community self-help groups and institutions that did not depend on Whites. It was used to force black studies programs at colleges, to mobilize black voters to elect black candidates, and to encourage greater racial pride and self-esteem.[citation needed]

One of the most spectacular and unexpected demonstrations for Black Power occurred at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. At the conclusion of the 200m race, at the medal ceremony, United States gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos wore Olympic Project for Human Rights badges and showed the raised fist (see 1968 Olympics Black Power salute) as the anthem played. Accompanying them was silver medalist Peter Norman, a white Australian sprinter, who also wore an OPHR badge to show his support for the two African Americans.

Impact on other movements


Though the aims of the Black Power movement were racially specific, much of the movement's impact has been its influence on the development and strategies of later political and social movements. By igniting and sustaining debate on the nature of American society, the Black Power movement created what other multiracial and minority groups interpreted to be a viable template for the overall restructuring of society.[29] By opening up discussion on issues of democracy and equality, the Black Power movement paved the way for a diverse plurality of social justice movements, including black feminism, environmental movements, affirmative action, and gay and lesbian rights. Central to these movements were the issues of identity politics and structural inequality, features emerging from the Black Power movement.[30] Because the Black Power movement emphasized and explored a black identity, movement activists were forced to confront issues of gender and class as well. Many activists in the Black Power movement became active in related movements. This is seen in the case of the "second wave" of women's right activism, a movement supported and orchestrated to a certain degree by women working from within the coalition ranks of the Black Power movement.[31] The boundaries between social movements became increasingly unclear at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s; where the Black Power movement ends and where these other social movements begin is often unclear. "It is pertinent to note that as the movement expanded the variables of gender, class, and only compounded issues of strategy and methodology in black protest thought."[32]

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Impact on African-American identity

Due to the negative and militant reputation of such auxiliaries as that of the Black Panther Party, many people felt that this movement of "insurrection" would soon serve to cause discord and disharmony through the entire U.S. Even Stokely Carmichael stated, "When you talk of Black Power, you talk of building a movement that will smash everything Western civilization has created."[33] Though Black Power at the most basic level refers to a political movement, the psychological and cultural messages of the Black Power movement, though less tangible, have had perhaps a longer lasting impact on American society than concrete political changes. Indeed, "fixation on the 'political' hinders appreciation of the movement's cultural manifestations and unnecessarily obscures black culture's role in promoting the psychological well being of the Afro-American people,"[34] states William L. Van Deburg, author of A New Day in Babylon, "movement leaders never were as successful in winning power for the people as they were in convincing people that they had sufficient power within themselves to escape 'the prison of self-deprecation'" [35] Primarily, the liberation and empowerment experienced by African Americans occurred in the psychological realm. The movement uplifted the black community as a whole by cultivating feelings of racial solidarity, often in opposition to the world of white Americans, a world that had physically and psychologically oppressed Blacks for generations. Through the movement, Blacks came to understand themselves and their culture by exploring and debating the question, "who are we?" in order to establish a unified and viable identity.[36]

Throughout the Civil Rights Movement and black history, a tension has existed between those wishing to minimize and maximize racial difference. W.E.B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King Jr. often attempted to deemphasize race in their quest for equality, while those advocating for separatism and colonization emphasized an extreme and irreconcilable difference between races. The Black Power movement largely achieved an equilibrium of "balanced and humane ethnocentrism."[36] The impact of the Black Power movement in generating valuable discussion about ethnic identity and black consciousness manifests itself in the relatively recent proliferation of academic fields such as American studies, Black Studies, and Africana studies in both national and international institutions.[31] The respect and attention accorded to African Americans' history and culture in both formal and informal settings today is largely a product of the movement for Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s.

Impact in Britain

Black Power got a foothold in Britain when Carmichael came to London in July 1967 to attend the Dialectics of Liberation Congress. As well as his address at the Congress, he also made a speech at Speakers' Corner. At that time there was no Black Power organization in Britain, although there was Michael X's Racial Adjustment Action Society.[37] However, this was more influenced by the visit of Malcolm X in that year. Michael X also adopted Islam at this stage, whereas Black Power was not organized around any religious institution. The Black Power Manifesto was launched on 10 November 1967, published by the Universal Coloured People's Association. Obi Egbuna, the spokesperson for the group, claimed they had recruited 778 members in London during the previous seven weeks.[38] In 1968 Egbuna published Black Power or Death. He was also active with CLR James, Calvin Hernton and others in the Antiuniversity of London,[39] set up following the Dialectics of Liberation Congress.

Afro-British who identified themselves as the British Black Power Movement (BBMP) formed in the 1960s. They worked with the U.S. Black Panther Party in 1967–68, and 1968–72.[40] The On March 2, 1970, roughly one hundred people protested outside the U.S. embassy in Grosvenor Square, London, in support of the U.S. Black Panther founder Bobby Seale, who was on trial for murder in New Haven, Connecticut.[40] They chanted "Free Bobby!" and carried posters proclaiming "Free, Free bobby Seale" and "You can kill a revolutionary but not a revolution." [40] London police arrested sixteen of the protestors that day, three women and thirteen men with threatening and assaulting police officers, distributing a flier entitled "the Definition of Black Power", intending to incite a breach of the peace, and willful damage to a police raincoat. The raincoat charge was dropped by the judge, but the judge found five of the accused guilty of the remaining charges.[40]


Impact in Jamaica

A Black Power movement arose in Jamaica in the late 1960s. Though Jamaica had gained independence from the British Empire in 1962, and Prime Minister Hugh Shearer was black, many cabinet ministers (such as Edward Seaga) and business elites were white. Large segments of the black majority population were unemployed or did not earn a living wage. The Jamaica Labour Party government of Hugh Shearer banned Black Power literature such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Eldridge Cleaver and Stokely Carmichael.

Guyanese academic Walter Rodney was appointed as a lecturer at the University of the West Indies in January 1968, and became one of the main exponents of Black Power in Jamaica. When the Shearer government banned Rodney from re-entering the country, the Rodney Riots broke out. As a result of the Rodney affair, radical groups and publications such as Abeng began to emerge, and the opposition People's National Party gained support. In the 1972 election, the Jamaica Labour Party was defeated by the People's National Party, and Michael Manley, who had expressed support for Black Power, became Prime Minister.[41]

Black is beautiful

The cultivation of pride in the African-American race was often summarized in the phrase "Black is Beautiful." The phrase is rooted in its historical context, yet the relationship to it has changed in contemporary times. "I don't think it's 'Black is beautiful' anymore. It's 'I am beautiful and I'm black.' It's not the symbolic thing, the afro, power sign… That phase is over and it succeeded. My children feel better about themselves and they know that they're black," stated a respondent in Bob Blauner's longitudinal oral history of U.S. race relations in 1986.[42] The outward manifestations of an appreciation and celebration of blackness abound: black dolls, natural hair, black Santas, models and celebrities that were once rare and symbolic have become commonplace.

The "Black is beautiful" cultural movement aimed to dispel the notion that black people's natural features such as skin color, facial features and hair are inherently ugly.[43] John Sweat Rock was the first to coin the phrase "Black is Beautiful", in the slavery era. The movement asked that men and women stop straightening their hair and attempting to lighten or bleach their skin.[44] The prevailing idea in American culture was that black features are less attractive or desirable than white features. The movement is largely responsible for the popularity of the Afro.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Black Power contd

 

[IllmaticDelta]

...........inspiring positive vibes around the world...crossing all races and geographic locations